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Posts Tagged ‘business’

Alberta communications companies suck

5 Nov 2009

It’s about as official as it gets, now. We leave Costa Rica on 8 December. Which means that on the morning of 9 December, we’re going to be needing a few things. We’re trying to establish as much of that as we can remotely, so that it’s “in place” when we arrive. It just makes things easier, right?

Well, it would make things easier if we could actually set things up properly. Therein lies the problem — it’s not that easy to do! Especially when it comes to the Holy Trinity of communications services: phone, internet, and TV.

The term “rocket science” comes to mind…

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The importance of delegation

26 Apr 2009

Delegation is the act of assigning work to other people, generally people who report to you. It’s supposed to be a way to ensure that the right people are doing the right jobs, and that large pieces of work will ultimately be completed. It’s something every manager will ultimately encounter, and their effectiveness at delegation often reflects the performance of a team (or department).

In many ways, it’s more art than it is skill. You have to know a lot about other people: their knowledge, their abilities, their sense of dedication, how much information they need before starting a project, their trustworthiness. It’s not something that comes easily.

Which leads to a sobering fact: some managers don’t delegate well, or even at all.

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The Failure of Offshoring

12 Apr 2009

A couple of years ago, I engaged in my first offshore experience, when we hooked up with a small company out of Argentina to develop and deliver some additions to a website, including the addition of a simple CMS. It had been a first crack at what would end up becoming a significant change in my career.

At the time, the experience had left a rather bad taste in my mouth, like realising that the glass of milk you’re drinking is a little off. It wasn’t that the experience was horrible, just that it could have been a lot better.

My experiences continued with other groups, mostly in Central and South America, and also included an arm of one of our regular vendors, who shifted operations from the United States to India. And I think it might have been the point at which I decided that if the opportunity arose, I really needed to find out what offshoring was like, first-hand.

Funny how life works, eh?

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Yes, I’m still alive

26 Mar 2009

You’re probably looking at the datestamp of my previous entry and wondering: Where the heck has that loser Geoff disappeared to? Well, much to your chagrin (or reassurance, depending on your point of view), I’m still very much alive.

Yes, I’ve been very incommunicado. I’ve been exceedingly busy. Busier than I’ve been in my entire life. Busy in a way I can’t even begin to describe adequately. Busy in a way I can’t even appreciate myself.

I’ve been here in Costa Rica for a mere 9 months. And I gotta tell ya, it feels like two years.

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I swear I’m going to kill my vendors

19 Oct 2008

I don’t care what the excuse is, the reality is that I’m not getting service I expect from a vendor. I’ve been told that it’s just something I have to adapt to. That it’s the way things are done. That it’s a cultural difference. I’ve encountered a variety of these aspects since first arriving here in Costa Rica. I’ve dealt with the indifferent, the incomprehensible, the insolent, and the indescribable.

But no matter how bad that service is, nothing excuses you from lying to me.

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Where I’ve been for the last few days

3 Jul 2008

I’m in Panama. Been here since Tuesday afternoon. Been really, really busy. So far, the biggest problem I’ve had here (aside from the aforementioned busy-ness and subsequent inability to talk to my family), is that I’ve had Van Halen’s Panama stuck in my head pretty much since we left San Jose.

Damn you, David Lee Roth. Damn you!

So far, it’s a great place to visit (a post coming on this soon). But we’ve been steadily on the move.

Oy.

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Setting up the office

19 Jun 2008

Getting everything going here is a bit of a challenge. There’s a lot to do, and we’re starting from scratch. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. There’s currently four people down here working on all this, and only one of them is actually from Costa Rica.

It started a few weeks ago when we were down here on the “tour”, when we started talking about what this company should be called. We latched onto an airline theme, which led us down the road of a name (to be announced at a later date), but also for how it should look.

Costa Rican Interviews, Day 1

29 May 2008

A tropical depression in the north of the country has created our weather woes of the last few days, and a heck of a downpour this morning.

Following our usual breakfast run, Joaquin arrived to pick the three of us up at 8:30 to take us downtown to the CIS / Rapp Collins office to interview candidates for our new office. We had a lot of people on the list, and we all knew it was going to be a long day.

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Thundercats are go!

6 May 2008

The contract is signed. It’s as official as it gets until my feet stand on Costa Rican soil. Most everything was already 99% assured, but until my name appeared on a legal document, there were still a whack of questions. This puts those questions to bed.

It wasn’t easy signing that contract. Not because it wasn’t a good offer, though. It’s because it’s not about me. Even though it was.

Let me explain…

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Tech Summit, Day 2

12 Feb 2008

Day 2 got off to a lousy start. I was sick. Nastily so. At first, I thought it was a hangover (I might have had — perhaps — one beer too many last night). But I realised very quickly that this was not, in fact, a hangover. I’ve had my share of them, I know how they affect me, and I know how to handle them.

This thing — whatever it was — knocked me flat on my back and sent me back to bed for the rest of the morning. Fortunately, I didn’t feel like I missed too much.

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